Summary
Townhouse, built around 1740, probably on the site of a C17 coaching inn.
Reasons for Designation
Cranglegate, 59 Market Place, Swaffham, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a fashionable and high-status C18 townhouse, that demonstrates a good quality design executed in good materials;
* for its distinctive and well-executed symmetrical façade with attractive neoclassical detailing, which is illustrative of the Georgian development of the town.
Historic interest:
* as a building which reflects the architectural tastes of the C18 as Swaffham became a fashionable local centre;
* for the contribution it makes to the evolution of the historic Market Place and the development of the town.
Group value:
* it has historic and functional group value with many other listed buildings ranged around Market Place.
History
Swaffham’s significance in the medieval period stemmed from its position on the crossroads of the main routes from London, Norwich and King’s Lynn. The first written record of a market in the town, which was established on a triangular-shaped area formed by the convergence of the aforementioned roads, was in 1215 when King John issued a royal writ to the Sherriff of Norfolk to abolish it should it ‘damage the market in Dunham’. It was never abolished and expanded rapidly with The Shambles being established at its centre in the C17. The Market Place was probably open to the church on its east side, but later C17 development closed this off, while the redevelopment of The Shambles in the late C18/early C19 resulted in the further loss of open market space. From the mid-C18, for a period of just over a hundred years, Swaffham became one of the most populous parishes in Norfolk and one of the most fashionable centres in the county, attracting many leading West Norfolk families. A racecourse had been established by 1628, the Assembly Rooms were constructed in 1776-1778, subsequently extended and modernised in 1817, and George Walpole, the Third Earl of Orford (1730-1791), founded a coursing club in 1786. During this period of prosperity, much rebuilding took place around the Market Place and the overall character of the town is primarily of mid-late Georgian in date, although there is evidence for C16-C17 work behind many façades. Further rebuilding also took place after ‘The Great Fire of Swaffham’, which probably started in the vicinity of the Blue Boar Inn (now the White Hart) on the afternoon of 14 November 1775, when it was set ablaze by a spark from a nearby blacksmith’s workshop. Fire soon engulfed the densely packed houses and workshops behind the inn and along London Road, with 22 buildings being completely destroyed and a further two badly damaged. The town continued to expand in the C19 when its population increased from 2,200 in 1800 to 3,350 in 1845. It also became an important local administrative centre during this period and acquired several notable buildings, including a National School (1838), Shire Hall (1839) and Corn Hall (1858).
Cranglegate, 59 Market Place, was probably built around 1740 as a high-status townhouse, possibly for Thomas Mason, a grocer’s merchant, on the site of a C17 coaching inn known as Le Maids Head. In 1788, John Horatio Bayly established a doctor's surgery here, at which time the building was known as The Maids Head. On his death in 1826, the house was purchased by Edward Seppings, an auctioneer and estate agent. From the mid-C19 the house was the residence and surgery of a long line of doctors until it became a private dwelling in 1971. In 1973 it was partly converted as an antiques showroom and workshop under the name Buckie Antiques. It is currently (2024) a private residence.
Details
Townhouse, built around 1740, probably on the site of a C17 coaching inn.
MATERIALS: of red brick in Flemish bond with a roof of black-glazed pantiles and brick stacks.
EXTERIOR: the symmetrical principal elevation to Market Place is of two storeys plus attic in nine bays, with a blind left-hand bay. At the centre of the ground floor, there is a raised and fielded six-panelled door over which is a six-vaned bat-wing fanlight. It is recessed within a pilastered doorcase with raised and fielded panelled reveals and block entablatures supporting an open segmental pediment. The rest of the façade has six-over-six unhorned sashes across both floors, all under gauged flat-segmental arches except the seventh and eighth ground-floor bays which have gauged flat arches. Below the first-floor windows there is a plat band and above is a cogged eaves cornice. The gabled roof has four flat-topped dormers with three-over-three sashes, the left-hand three with horns and the right-hand one without horns. At the west end is an internal gable-end stack. The east gable end is colour-washed and rendered and scored to imitate ashlar, with an unhorned three-over-three sash to the attic. Attached to the gabled east return is a single-storey bay with a half-glazed door recessed within a pilastered surround with a shallow fascia. The rear elevation has two stacks on the wall plane and a two-storey extension.
INTERIOR: recorded to retain a turned-baluster staircase.
